Lessons in innovation from the continent

Just 50 years ago, New Zealand was outpacing Scandinavian countries – but differing attitudes to innovation have seen a sizeable gap open up, and not to our advantage, says Professor Kenneth Husted.

Just 50 years ago, New Zealand was outpacing Scandinavian countries – but differing attitudes to innovation have seen a sizeable gap open up, and not to our advantage, says Professor Kenneth Husted.

"We need to think of innovation as a space we can put money into and
capture value from," said the
newly-appointed co-director of the University of Auckland's Business School Centre for
Entrepreneurial Learning.

"The trick is to foster these competencies so that the ability to deal
effectively with risk and uncertainty and to collaborate locally around
innovation becomes widespread."

Husted
was previously research director at the Copenhagen Business School's Management
of Innovation and Knowledge (MINK) research group. While he says motivation for New Zealand to lift its game may come
from comparisons with Australia's economic performance, we need to find our own solutions, and Nordic countries offer some useful insights.

"Scandinavia is a cluster of societies that have created growth
largely through innovation and research commercialisation. They possess
diversified economies spanning both traditional and high-tech sectors,
robust interaction between universities and industry and a widespread
understanding of how to nurture innovation," he said.

According to Husted, innovation can transform the fortunes of any
enterprise – not just those in the high-tech sector. Much of the innovation in
Scandinavia is taking place in traditional industries. Danish
manufacturer Velux, for example, collaborates with universities to
refine its range of roof windows products. The company now has
manufacturing plants in 11 countries and global industry dominance. Meanwhile, the Norwegian seafood sector has built up a complementary machine manufacturing industry
which
gives it a competitive advantage.

"Even though New Zealand has one of the world's largest seafood industries, we don't have that depth of support."

He said the process of innovation tended to have a ripple effect throughout an economy – when companies begin
to innovate, they collaborate with suppliers and others near them in
the value chain, then begin to look to other
organisations, such as Crown Research Institutes, for input.

"So, in effect, innovation drags research commercialisation along with it."